Environmental Compliance Services
DPRA proposes four service offerings:
Environmental Site Assessments
Pollution Prevention Services.
The following is a description of each service and an explanation of how it supports the Environmental Service needs of government agencies.
Environmental Site Assessments
Environmental site assessments are a necessary step in any real estate transaction. In addition, environmental assessments may be used to establish the "innocent landowner" defense provided by the federal Superfund laws or to obtain written assurances under state-specific investigations and cleanup programs.
Sources of environmental contamination can exist on any type of property and may include underground and above-ground storage tanks; asbestos- and lead-contaminated building materials; landfills and disposal sites; and past chemical use, storage, and management activities. DPRA staff have performed hundreds of environmental site assessments across the country and overseas for clients involved in real estate transactions, acquisitions, and divestures.
DPRA has assessed all types of properties, including multi-unit residential properties, commercial buildings, and large industrial tracts occupied by oil and chemical refineries. DPRA has completed assessments for individual parcels, as well as for multiple site acquisitions in which 100 or more properties were assessed simultaneously.
Our clients include corporations, property developers, insurance companies, law firms, lenders, and local units of government. We have been consulted in transactions involving single parcels of property as well as large merger and acquisition portfolios. Members of our staff participate on the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) Committee and have helped to set the standard for national Phase I environmental site assessments.
Compliance audits provide government agencies with an understanding of the laws and regulations that apply to their operations, assess their current compliance status, evaluate their existing environmental management systems, and recommend corrective actions to bring operations into compliance. They can be used to develop a baseline for existing conditions or establish trending and benchmarking data for use in creating or refining an organization's environmental, health, and safety (EHS) policies and procedures.
In addition, purchasers of new properties often require environmental compliance audits as part of the environmental due diligence process performed during the acquisition process. DPRA provides compliance audit services to help companies comply with existing federal, state, and local environmental regulations and identify conditions that represent potential environmental liabilities.
As part of an environmental compliance audit, DPRA reviews applicable laws and regulations for the facility, observes the facility and evaluates its level of compliance, and develops a list of recommendations and a cost estimate for maintaining compliance.
DPRA works closely with company management and facilities personnel to increase efficiency and to promote understanding of the audit process. DPRA meets with facility managers, documents activities that affect the environment, and completes a pre-audit checklist to assist in identifying each facility's environmental compliance areas.
These compliance areas include wastewater discharges, air emissions, chemical spill control, underground storage tanks, OSHA requirements, community right-to-know reporting, hazardous waste generation, waste storage, and waste treatment and disposal. DPRA's dedicated and highly qualified staff have helped hundreds of companies comply with federal, state, and local environmental regulations and to manage their environmental risk.
In the process, DPRA has become recognized as a national leader in environmental compliance planning.
Increasingly, government agencies are turning to international standards to help them manage processes that affect the environment. The International Standards Organization (ISO) has developed families of generic management system standards for quality management (ISO 9000) and environmental management (ISO 14000).
DPRA has helped private and public organizations improve management and increase competitiveness for over 25 years. DPRA's Environmental Services group includes environmental specialists, industrial engineers, and management experts. Our professional staff have experience in design and implementation of environmental management systems, including ISO 14001, in the automotive, food processing, chemical, pharmaceutical, textile, and other industries.
We have also conducted numerous training programs on environmental managagement system design, implementation, and auditing. DPRA helps many public and private clients manage environmental issues and facilitate approval and implementation of business projects.
Our approach to developing environmental management systems addresses the challenges associated with environmental management, regulatory processes, and relations with the public and stakeholders. Through a combination of strategic advice, training, and facilitation, DPRA has guided many organizations in establishing management systems that respond to the concerns of government, public interest groups, and local communities.
DPRA assists federal organizations in moving beyond minimum compliance with environmental regulations to identifying and implementing waste reducing activities that often reduce waste management costs. DPRA pollution prevention (P2) professionals can evaluate individual or organization-wide processes and operations to identify P2 opportunities that can be achieved through source reduction or elimination, as well as waste stream reuse and recycling.
Our services include:
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P2 planning and oversight
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P2 auditing/assessments
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Preparing engineering cost analyses and evaluating funding requirements for implementation of P2 projects
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Performing regulatory reporting and internal organizational reports
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Outreach and training
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Creation or revision of P2 policies and procedures
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Establishing and instituting P2 affirmative ("green") procurement requirements.
DPRA provides P2 services to the private sector, the EPA, Department of Energy (DOE), and the Department of Defense (DoD). For example, over 10 years DPRA has provided a range of P2 services for the DOE's operations in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. DPRA collects and analyzes data on DOE and DOE-contractor waste generating projects. From these analyses DPRA systematically identifies and prioritizes processes that have the greatest potential to realize significant P2 benefits.
These candidates are then evaluated by DPRA to determine whether alternative production methods or processes could be used to eliminate, reduce, or recycle waste streams. Once a P2 technology or strategy is selected for a process, the implementation of the technology or strategy is monitored by DPRA to ensure that its intended benefits are realized. The results of these efforts have been significant savings to DOE in direct material and manpower costs. DOE has achieved increased compliance, reduced disposal volumes, and reduced waste management, transportation and storage costs.